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A recent study tracked fiddler crabs in heavily polluted mangroves in Colombia. The crabs accumulated plastic at levels far higher than the surrounding sediment — and as they fed, their grinding digestive systems broke microplastics into even smaller pieces. That might sound like a good thing, but those tinier fragments are tougher to track and more likely to make their way through the food chain.
Microplastics, those teeny, tiny shards of plastic that take more than 400 years to fully decompose, are just about everywhere, and the world's mangrove forests are no exception. Hidden in the tangled roots and sediment where they settle, one tiny cr... [3398 chars]